A summary of requests to the Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends (CFACT) for information to inform health initiatives, and of the assistance provided from August 2011 through February 2012.

Source of Request

Request

Date

Staff Responsible

Assistance Provided

Congressional Research Service

Analysis of prescribed medicine purchases

Marie Stagnitti

Provided national estimates of the top therapeutic classes of prescribed medicine purchases by total expenditures, limited to medicine purchased for children (ages 0-17). Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the requested information was provided to meet a tight deadline. The comparable estimates for adults are found in Expenditures for the Top Five Therapeutic Classes (PDF, 139 KB).

U.S. Senate

National health care expenditures for persons with Alzheimer's Disease.

8/11

Jeff Rhoades

Provided substantive assistance to Senator Barbara Mikulski's office, U.S. Senate, to discuss national expenditure estimates and sources of payment from the MEPS Household Component. Particular attention was given to providing national health care expenditures for persons with Alzheimer's Disease.

Council of Economic Advisors

National estimates on cost and coverage to inform the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

8/11

Steve Cohen

Briefed staff of the Council of Economic Advisors on the availability of survey and administrative data at AHRQ and HHS for evaluating components of the Affordable Care Act. Responded to questions regarding the capacity of large-scale surveys to collect the data that will be needed to evaluate key provisions of health reform and regarding potential content enhancements that would improve evaluation capacity.

Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC)

Size of the non-group market and average length of spell of non-group coverage

8/11

Steve Cohen and Steve Hill

Responded to a request to provide a review of the MEPS measures and content included in the forthcoming report entitled Compendium of Access-to-Care Measures in Federal Surveys of U.S. Households.

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

National expenditure estimates of persons who died in a given year

9/11

AHRQ Data Center staff

Provided access to GAO staff to restricted MEPS data through AHRQ's Data Center to conduct a study on the demographic and geographic profile of adults with pre-existing medical conditions. GAO used the national MEPS health care survey data to examine: the prevalence of and expenditures for certain conditions among the population of non-institutionalized U.S. adults not covered by Medicare, population counts of five groups of individuals with different pre-existing conditions, and the geographic and demographic profile of adults with pre-existing conditions.

Senate Appropriations Committee

Estimates of service utilization for treatment of chronic pain conditions for women

10/11

Anita Soni

Responded to a request for analysis of the health care expenditures by women which were associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis, temporomandibular [TMJ] disorders, and vulvodynia. To ensure adequate precision, the conditions were grouped together in the analysis as chronic pain conditions. Annual health care expenditure estimates were derived using AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). The MEPS Statistical Brief, entitled Health Care Use and Expenditures for Pain Conditions Among Women 18 and Older (PDF, 142 KB), was completed to address this request.

Congressional Budget Office

Trends in health care spending for the privately insured

11/11

Joel Cohen

Provided technical assistance and national estimates from the MEPS on trends in out-of-pocket payments for persons with private health insurance.

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Psychotropic drugs and other mental health therapies for children

12/11

Sam Zuvekas and Steve Cohen

Provided substantive assistance on psychotropic drug and other mental health therapies for children. Focused on the findings from the following reports: National Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage, Mental Health Utilization, and Spending for Low-Income Individuals, and the Health Affairs article, Prescription Drugs And The Changing Patterns Of Treatment For Mental Disorders, 1996-2001. [Health Affairs 2005;24(1):195-205.]

Congressional Budget Office

National health insurance estimates

12/11

Steve Hill and Jessica Vistnes

Provided national estimates, derived from MEPS, of employment-related insurance policies held by nonelderly active employees, former employees (under COBRA continuing coverage provisions), and retirees. Also provided estimates of the characteristics of policyholders with single and family coverage.

Provided substantive consultations on using MEPS to inform analyses of barriers to care for Medicaid beneficiaries. Provided details on the content of MEPS on access to care, as well as information about related estimates. Clarified methods to determine full- and part-year insurance status, and to appropriately use the access-to-care data for this study.

Requests for data and publications: Descriptive statistics for all assistance provided are available upon request. Please contact Cindy Nunley at cindy.nunley@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Source: Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.